Hello Readers,

A long time ago, about two days back, my daughter decided to paint the famous Mona Lisa. She saw a YouTube video of how to paint Mona Lisa with crayons and decided to give it a go. Her desire was to recreate the famous ‘Mona Lisa Eye Effect’, with her eyes following us wherever we go. She worked really hard for 5 minutes and announced that she had replicated the very challenging eye effect. We placed the painting on the mantel and called the entire family for an urgent meeting. We were on the precipice of discovering if we have a genius in our midst. We started walking perpendicular to the painting. Lo and behold! The eyes were following us for sure. We were ecstatic. It was then that my nephew came to me with a research article opened on his tablet. The title screamed, ‘The magical gaze of Mona Lisa is a myth’!

There was complete silence as I read the article out loud. It was a scene straight out of a Stephen King book – all of us stood still and only our eyeballs moved – in the direction of my daughter. My daughter was seeing the entire spectacle with a cool indifference as she had accepted her genius a long time ago. Unperturbed, she walked towards us while adjusting her blue-ray glasses, looking exactly like James Bond, and suggested that we walk by the painting again. We started walking once again. Lo and Behold! The eyes were not following us this time. We were jubilant yet again. With a smile on her lips, my daughter walked back to her room, casually adjusting her blue-ray glasses – leaving us wondering, “Did that really happen, or did we just get fooled by a 7-year-old?”

Enjoy the edition!

Priyanka